iren: continuous calligraphic motion

Oriental calligraphy, whether or not one understands the meaning of the characters, is a brushwork design of abstract beauty (see, for example, the end papers of this book). Mr. Uchiyama, a master calligraphist as well as sumi artist, employs many of the strokes and underlying rhythms of calligraphy in the painting of visual subjects. The very qualities which give continuity, beauty, and fluency to his calligraphy also generously appear throughout this writing-painting we call sumi-e.

One of the more valuable contributions of calligraphy to sumi painting is that quality referred to as iren. Iren is the continuation of the arm movement between the strokes visible on the paper. Due to the flow of this unbroken motion, there is no shaky pause of indecision as to where the next stroke will begin; one stroke flows naturally and rhythmically into the next.

In Oriental calligraphy, this continuation of stroke movement is part of the logical construction of the written character. In the student's copybook, each character is shown in the consecutive order of its stroke construction, a logical progression from start to finish. The strokes are numbered, and are sometimes connected with a dotted line to show the continuous motion of the brush and arm between these strokes during the time the brush is raised from the paper.

In Fig. 2 the calligraphic character for naka, "middle," illustrates this continuation of motion between strokes. The same flowing rhythm of iren in sumi painting may be recognized most clearly in the strokes of the wild orchid, as in Fig. 3. The calligraphic techniques of this honored flower of Japan are described more fully on pages 20 and 21.

Iren, however, is more than just a numbered order of strokes. This numerical sequence serves as a suggestion for the flowing action of the sumi brush. This brush action is one of the important and unique qualities of sumi painting. In other forms of art the physical manner in which the paint is applied to the paper or canvas is of relatively minor importance to the finished work. In sumi-e it is an integral part of the painting itself.

The excitement of this action-painting may best be understood by experimenting with a series of free strokes like those of Fig. 1. Swinging your arm in a series of variegated oval motions, bring the brush to the paper in sections of this oval motion and note that the strokes seem to fall almost naturally into a pleasing pattern. More realistically, these same strokes might lend themselves to an impression of graceful willow branches as in Fig. 4. The willow leaves, while differing in brush pressure and length of stroke, are also the patterned result of the free-swinging circular arm motion of iren.